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Olympic torch flies to International Space Station

HEADED TO SPACE: From left: Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Rick Mastracchio, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, walk to a bus as Russian cosmonaut Valery Korzun carries an Olympic torch prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew will deliver Olympic torch to space as part of the ongoing Olympic torch relay. The torch will be brought back along with the station's current crew. Photo: Associated Press/Dmitry Lovetsky

LAURA MILLS, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian spacecraft carrying the Olympic torch and three astronauts has docked with the International Space Station.

Video streamed by the U.S. space agency NASA reported a flawless docking Thursday about six hours after the craft blasted off from Russia’s manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The unlit torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi is to be taken on a spacewalk Saturday, then return to Earth on Monday (late Sunday EST) with three departing space station astronauts.

The arriving crew members Thursday were Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan.